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The outcome stunned legal analysts and television viewers who had been glued to the case.

Miss Anthony remained behind bars for 12 more days after being convicted of lying to authorities.

Her legal team said she had received seven serious death threats ahead of her release, including an emailed threat showing a manipulated photograph of her with a bullet hole in her forehead.

During the trial prosecution lawyers were unable to convince the jury of their claims that Miss Anthony suffocated her daughter with duct tape, dumped the body in her car for a few days, and then hid it in woodland.

The defence maintained that the toddler drowned accidentally and that her mother covered up the death.

Miss Anthony did not report Caylee missing for 31 days after she is thought to have died and was photographed partying at a nightclub during that time.

Following the release her lawyer Jose Baez said: "It is my hope that Casey Anthony can receive the counselling and treatment she needs to move forward with the rest of her life."

Mr Baez said his client would not be going to stay with her parents, with whom her relations became strained during the trial. He also denied reports that Miss Anthony planned to go to Puerto Rico, or have plastic surgery to alter her appearance.

Mike Quiroz, a demonstrator outside the jail, said: "She is safer in jail than she is out here. She is known all over the world." Politicians in several states are proposing a so-called "Caylee's law" that would allow them to prosecute parents who don't quickly report missing children.